IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v21y2020i1p7-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Remittances on Domestic Investment: A Panel Study of Six South Asian Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ranjan Kumar Dash

Abstract

Remittances inflow to South Asian countries increased significantly and is now one of the major sources of external finance overtaking traditional capital inflows such as foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and aid. However, the role of remittances in economic development has not been examined extensively, particularly for South Asian countries. This article examines the impact of remittances on domestic investment for South Asia over 1991–2017. Advanced panel estimation methods (unit root, cointegration and causality) are employed to account for potential country-specific heterogeneity and the endogeneity problem. Results of this study suggest that remittances increase domestic investment in the short term as well as in the long run for South Asia. This indicates that remittances are used not only for consumption purposes but also for investment activities such as human and physical capital development. The panel causality results suggest the presence of uni-directional causality running from remittances to domestic investment. Therefore, the result of this study supports the theoretical argument and previous empirical studies for other developing countries JEL: C3, 01, F3, F22

Suggested Citation

  • Ranjan Kumar Dash, 2020. "Impact of Remittances on Domestic Investment: A Panel Study of Six South Asian Countries," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 21(1), pages 7-30, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:21:y:2020:i:1:p:7-30
    DOI: 10.1177/1391561420903199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1391561420903199
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1391561420903199?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bichaka Fayissa & Christian Nsiah, 2010. "The Impact of Remittances on Economic Growth and Development in Africa," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(2), pages 92-103, November.
    2. Takeshi Inoue & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2016. "Do Workers’ Remittances Promote Access to Finance? Evidence from Asia-Pacific Developing Countries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 765-774, March.
    3. Hrushikesh Mallick, 2012. "Inflow Of Remittances And Private Investment In India," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 57(01), pages 1-22.
    4. Laurent Gheeraert & Ritha Sukadi Mata & Daniel Traca, 2010. "Remittances and Domestic Investment in Developing Countries: An Analysis of the Role of Financial Sector Development," Working Papers CEB 10-013.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Richard H. Adams, Jr. & John Page, 2003. "International migration, remittances, and poverty in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3179, The World Bank.
    6. Ibrahim Ahamada & Dramane Coulibaly, 2013. "Remittances And Growth In Sub‐Saharan African Countries: Evidence From A Panel Causality Test," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 310-324, April.
    7. Robert S. Pindyck & Andrés Solimano, 1993. "Economic Instability and Aggregate Investment," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1993, Volume 8, pages 259-318, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Giuliano, Paola & Ruiz-Arranz, Marta, 2009. "Remittances, financial development, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 144-152, September.
    9. Connel Fullenkamp & Mr. Thomas F. Cosimano & Michael T. Gapen & Mr. Ralph Chami & Mr. Peter J Montiel & Mr. Adolfo Barajas, 2008. "Macroeconomic Consequences of Remittances," IMF Occasional Papers 2008/001, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Adams, Samuel & Klobodu, Edem Kwame Mensah, 2016. "Remittances, regime durability and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Ahmed, Vaqar & Sugiyarto, Guntur & Jha, Shikha, 2010. "Remittances and Household Welfare: A Case Study of Pakistan," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 194, Asian Development Bank.
    12. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    13. Sahoo, Pravakar & Dash, Ranjan Kumar, 2013. "Financial sector development and domestic savings in South Asia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 388-397.
    14. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    15. Salas, Vania B., 2014. "International Remittances and Human Capital Formation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 224-237.
    16. Alejandra Cox Edwards & Manuelita Ureta, 2003. "International Migration, Remittances, and Schooling: Evidence from El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 9766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona & Hurlin, Christophe, 2012. "Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1450-1460.
    18. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    19. Adams, Richard H, Jr, 1998. "Remittances, Investment, and Rural Asset Accumulation in Pakistan," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 155-173, October.
    20. Bontempi, Maria Elena & Golinelli, Roberto & Parigi, Giuseppe, 2010. "Why demand uncertainty curbs investment: Evidence from a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 218-238, March.
    21. Le Thanh Tung, 2018. "The Impact Of Remittances On Domestic Investment In Developing Countries: Fresh Evidence From The Asia-Pacific Region," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 9(2).
    22. B. Gabriela Mundaca, 2009. "Remittances, Financial Market Development, and Economic Growth: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 288-303, May.
    23. B. Bhaskara Rao & Gazi Mainul Hassan, 2012. "Are the Direct and Indirect Growth Effects of Remittances Significant?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 351-372, March.
    24. Michael T. Gapen & Mr. Ralph Chami & Mr. Peter J Montiel & Mr. Adolfo Barajas & Connel Fullenkamp, 2009. "Do Workers’ Remittances Promote Economic Growth?," IMF Working Papers 2009/153, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Ibrahim Ahamada & Dramane Coulibaly, 2013. "Remittances and growth in Sub-Saharan African countries," Post-Print hal-01385853, HAL.
    26. Edwards, Alejandra Cox & Ureta, Manuelita, 2003. "International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 429-461, December.
    27. Hall, Alastair R & Sen, Amit, 1999. "Structural Stability Testing in Models Estimated by Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(3), pages 335-348, July.
    28. Fry, Maxwell J., 1993. "Foreign direct investment in a macroeconomic framework : finance, efficiency, incentives, and distortions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1141, The World Bank.
    29. Murshed Chowdhury, 2016. "Financial Development, Remittances and Economic Growth: Evidence Using a Dynamic Panel Estimation," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 10(1), pages 35-54, February.
    30. John Connell & Dennis Conway, 2000. "Migration and remittances in island microstates: a comparative perspective on the South Pacific and the Caribbean," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 52-78, March.
    31. Yéro Baldé, 2011. "The impact of Remittances and Foreign Aid on Savings/Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa," Post-Print hal-00785220, HAL.
    32. Mody, Ashoka & Murshid, Antu Panini, 2005. "Growing up with capital flows," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 249-266, January.
    33. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong & Elizabeth Asiedu, 2015. "Remittances and investment in education: Evidence from Ghana," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 173-200, March.
    34. David McKenzie & Hillel Rapoport, 2011. "Can migration reduce educational attainment? Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1331-1358, October.
    35. Aggarwal, Reena & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Pería, Maria Soledad Martínez, 2011. "Do remittances promote financial development?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 255-264, November.
    36. Barry P. Bosworth & Susan M. Collins, 1999. "Capital Flows to Developing Economies: Implications for Saving and Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 30(1), pages 143-180.
    37. James Dzansi, 2013. "Do remittance inflows promote manufacturing growth?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(1), pages 89-111, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francois, John Nana & Ahmad, Nazneen & Keinsley, Andrew & Nti-Addae, Akwasi, 2022. "Heterogeneity in the long-run remittance-output relationship: Theory and new evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Selçuk Akçay & Emre Karabulutoğlu, 2021. "Do remittances moderate financial development–informality nexus in North Africa?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 166-179, March.
    3. Van Bon Nguyen, 2023. "The remittance inflows - private investment nexus in Asian developing countries: does institutional quality matter?," Economic Research Guardian, Weissberg Publishing, vol. 13(1), pages 31-46, June.
    4. Azreen Benazir Abdullah Ahmed & Sakib Amin & Charles Harvie & Rabindra Nepal, 2021. "The Nexus Between Energy and Trade in South Asia: A Panel Analysis," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 40(2), pages 134-151, June.
    5. Su, Chi-Wei & Sun, Tiezhu & Ahmad, Shabbir & Mirza, Nawazish, 2021. "Does institutional quality and remittances inflow crowd-in private investment to avoid Dutch Disease? A case for emerging seven (E7) economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Chimere O. Iheonu & Simplice A. Asongu & Kingsley O. Odo & Patrick K. Ojiem, 2020. "Financial sector development and Investment in selected countries of the Economic Community of West African States: empirical evidence using heterogeneous panel data method," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Chimere O. Iheonu & Simplice A. Asongu & Kingsley O. Odo & Patrick K. Ojiem, 2020. "Financial Sector Development and Investment in Selected ECOWAS Countries: Empirical Evidence using Heterogeneous Panel Data Method," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/045, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    8. Ranjan Kumar Dash, 2023. "Do Remittances Crowd-In or Crowd-Out Domestic Investment? An Empirical Analysis of 24 Low-Income Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 1177-1193, June.
    9. Shashi Kant Chaudhary, PhD, 2022. "Remittances, Economic Growth and Investment Nexus: Evidence from Nepal," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Economic Research Department, vol. 34(1), pages 1-23, April.
    10. Genc, Ismail H., 2022. "Are Indian Subcontinent remittance markets connected to each other?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ranjan Kumar Dash, 2023. "Do Remittances Crowd-In or Crowd-Out Domestic Investment? An Empirical Analysis of 24 Low-Income Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 1177-1193, June.
    2. Wadad Saad & Hassan Ayoub, 2019. "Remittances, Governance and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from MENA Region," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(8), pages 1-1, August.
    3. Ma, Yechi & Chen, Zhiguo & Shinwari, Riazullah & Khan, Zeeshan, 2021. "Financialization, globalization, and Dutch disease: Is Dutch disease exist for resources rich countries?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Imad El Hamma, 2018. "Migrant Remittances and Economic Growth: The Role of Financial Development and Institutional Quality," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 503-504, pages 123-142.
    5. Chrysost Bangake & Jude Eggoh, 2020. "Financial Development Thresholds and the Remittances-Growth Nexus," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(2), pages 425-445, June.
    6. Gloria Clarissa O. Dzeha, 2016. "The decipher, theory or empirics: a review of remittance studies," African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(2), pages 113-134.
    7. Su, Chi-Wei & Sun, Tiezhu & Ahmad, Shabbir & Mirza, Nawazish, 2021. "Does institutional quality and remittances inflow crowd-in private investment to avoid Dutch Disease? A case for emerging seven (E7) economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Le Thanh Tung, 2018. "The Impact Of Remittances On Domestic Investment In Developing Countries: Fresh Evidence From The Asia-Pacific Region," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 9(2).
    9. Arusha Cooray & Nabamita Dutta & Sushanta Mallick, 2016. "Does female human capital formation matter for the income effect of remittances? Evidence from developing countries," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 458-478, October.
    10. Van Bon Nguyen, 2023. "The remittance inflows - private investment nexus in Asian developing countries: does institutional quality matter?," Economic Research Guardian, Weissberg Publishing, vol. 13(1), pages 31-46, June.
    11. Konte M., 2014. "Do remittances not promote growth? : a bias-adjusted three-step mixture-of-regressions," MERIT Working Papers 2014-075, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Imad El Hamma, 2016. "Linking Remittances with Financial Development and Institutions: A Study from Selected MENA Countries," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-38, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    13. Moukpè Gniniguè & Essossinam Ali, 2022. "Migrant Remittances and Economic Growth in ECOWAS Countries: Does Digitalization Matter?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2517-2542, October.
    14. Mondal, Ripon Kumar & Khanam, Rasheda, 2018. "The impacts of international migrants’ remittances on household consumption volatility in developing countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 171-187.
    15. Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2021. "Remittances and Economic Growth in MENA Countries: The Role of Financial Development," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 43-59, March.
    16. Beine, Michel & Lodigiani, Elisabetta & Vermeulen, Robert, 2012. "Remittances and financial openness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 844-857.
    17. Abida Zouheir & Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2014. "Remittances, Financial Development and Economic Growth: The Case of North African Countries," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 17(51), pages 137-170, March.
    18. Adams, Samuel & Klobodu, Edem Kwame Mensah, 2016. "Remittances, regime durability and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-8.
    19. Jude Eggoh & Chrysost Bangaké, 2021. "Remittances and Financial Inclusion: Does Financial Development Matter?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 374-386.
    20. Imtiaz Arif & Syed Ali Raza & Anita Friemann & Muhammad Tahir Suleman, 2019. "The Role of Remittances in the Development of Higher Education: Evidence from Top Remittance Receiving Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 1233-1243, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Remittances; domestic investment; panel data; South Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C3 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:21:y:2020:i:1:p:7-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.